Rachel Bachman of the Wall Street Journal took a look at some of the most-used words from coaches at media days over the past week, including a trio of Big 12 coaches. This includes only each coach's 20 minutes at the podium.
She noted that Texas coach Mack Brown used the word "tempo" 14 times, and Kansas State coach Bill Snyder used the word "young" on 11 occasions, just ahead of Baylor coach Art Briles' 10 "America" references. (How patriotic!)
Let's have a closer look at this phenomenon, thanks to the folks at ASAP Sports, who supplied the transcripts:
Art Briles, Baylor
"football": 13 times
"America": 10 times
"opportunity": five times
Psychoanalysis: What an amazing collection of words here. I'd keep an eye on Baylor changing its colors to red, white and blue pretty soon.
Paul Rhoads, Iowa State
"replace": six times
"excited": five times
Psychoanalysis: Rhoads is always excited, but no surprise that there was so much talk about all the replacement going on in Ames this year.
Charlie Weis, Kansas
"players": 11 times
"good": seven times
"junior college"/"juco": five times
Psychoanalysis: In a nutshell, this is Kansas football right now, no? No team in the Big 12 needed "players" more than the Jayhawks, and Weis talked about "players" in general as much as any coach in the league last week.
Bill Snyder, Kansas State
"young": 11 times
"different": 11 times
"position": seven times
Psychoanalysis: You never know what you're going to get with Snyder. The uninitiated find him boring, and even if Snyder's delivery can be that at times, I came to a new appreciation of his dry sense of humor during the Wildcats' title run last season.
Bob Stoops, Oklahoma
"great": 19 times (including nine in his opening statement!)
"excited": nine times
"Blake": four times
"In the end": twice
Psychoanalysis: Times are changing in Norman. Stoops' signature phrase gets less and less play these days, but he spent a good amount of time talking about his new quarterback.
Mike Gundy, Oklahoma State:
"offense(s)": 12 times
"success": 11 times
"great": 11 times
"young men": 10 times
"advantage": 10 times
"college football": seven times
Psychoanalysis: This is a great word cloud of exactly what Oklahoma State football has been about on its progressive rise under Gundy. They've done it with offense, especially in the last three seasons.
Gary Patterson, TCU:
"year(s)": 22 times
"great": 16 times
"ball game(s)": seven times
"defense": five times
"LSU": five times
"offense(s)": four times
"big ball game": three times
Psychoanalysis: Patterson apparently couldn't catch Bob Stoops' "greatness" word count, but that first game is obviously a "big ball game," to borrow a phrase.
Mack Brown, Texas
"better": 16 times
"tempo": 14 times
"older": seven times
"run(s) the ball": seven times
"David": six times
"Colt": six times
"Vince": four times
"today": four times
Psychoanalysis: Don't kill the messenger here, but I found nary a mention of Sam Bradford or Landry Jones from Bob Stoops, and Art Briles mentioned Robert Griffin III just once, in response to a direct question about RG III's Heisman win.
Kliff Kingsbury, Texas Tech
"team": 10 times
"league": eight times
Psychoanalysis: In my conversations with Kingsbury, it's clear he gives by far the shortest answers of any Big 12 coach. That shows here, too. Not a lot of repetition, and when it shows up, it's mostly words everybody uses.
Dana Holgorsen, West Virginia
"Big 12": 12 times
"offense(s)": eight times
"defense(s)": five times
"quarterback": four times
"Ford": one time
"Paul": one time
"Clint": one time
Psychoanalysis: Props to Holgorsen for not providing much in the way of tea leaves to read when it comes to his quarterback race. Sounds like somebody is (a) happy to be in the Big 12 and (b) loves to talk offense.